The present application is related to a U.S. patent application entitled to xe2x80x9cSTACKED ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR ASSEMBLY HAVING EASILY DETACHABLE ELECTRONIC MODULExe2x80x9d, invented by Leonard Kay Espenshade and Kevin Eugene Walker, the application entitled to xe2x80x9cSHIELDED ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR ASSEMBLY HAVING RELIABLE GROUNDING CAPABILITIESxe2x80x9d, invented by Leonard Kay Espenshade, the application entitled to xe2x80x9cSTACKED CONNECTOR WITH LEDS AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAMExe2x80x9d, invented by Kevin Eugene Walker and Leonard Kay Espenshade, the application entitled to xe2x80x9cSTACKED CONNECTOR WITH LEDSxe2x80x9d, invented by Leonard Kay Espenshade and Kevin Eugene Walker, the application entitled to xe2x80x9cSTACKED CONNECTOR WITH REAR COVER ASSEMBLED THERETOxe2x80x9d, invented by Kevin Eugene Walker, James Henry Hyland, Tod Martin Harlan and Robert William Brown, and the application entitled xe2x80x9cSHIELDED ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR ASSEMBLY HAVING RELIABLE GROUNDING CAPABILITIESxe2x80x9d, contemporaneously filed and all assigned to the common assignee.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector assembly, and more particularly to an electrical connector assembly having reliable grounding capabilities.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the electronics industry, electrical connectors are often mounted to printed circuit boards for electrical connection to circuit traces on the boards. The electrical connectors typically comprise housings, a plurality of contacts received in the housings and shields enclosing the housings for shielding against electromagnetic interference (EMI).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,089 issued to Costello et al discloses such an electrical connector. The Costello device is a stacked LAN connector adapted for mounting to a circuit board. The stacked LAN connector comprises a stacked USB component and a modular jack component received in respective portions of a main housing. An inner shield shields the arrays of contacts of the modular jack component and the stacked USB component.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,183,292 issued to Chen et al on Feb. 6, 2001 also discloses an electrical connector. The Chen device is an electrical connector assembly comprising an insulative housing 5, and a modular jack 1 and a stacked Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector 4 both received in the housing 5. The module jack 1 is mounted on a daughter printed circuit board (PCB) 2 carrying a signal conditioning component 3. A resilient contact pad 20 is mounted on the daughter PCB 2. The stacked USB connector 4 comprises a ground shell 43 to resiliently abut against the resilient contact pad 20, thereby establishing a ground connection between the stacked USB connector 4 and the daughter PCB 2.
However, if a certain component is mounted between the daughter PCB 2 and the stacked USB connector 4 for a certain purpose, it is impossible for the ground shell 43 to make contact with the contact pad 20 of the daughter PCB 2.
Hence, an improved electrical connector assembly is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
A main object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector assembly having a ground member connecting a connector with a daughter PCB.
An electrical connector assembly in accordance with the present invention is mounted on a mother printed circuit board (PCB) of an electrical device. The electrical connector comprises an insulative main housing defining a cavity, a stacked Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector received in the cavity of the main housing, a daughter PCB and a ground member. The stacked USB connector comprises a shell. The daughter PCB comprises a signal conditioning component and is parallel to the rear wall of the main housing. The ground member comprises a body portion electrically connecting with the shell of the USB connector, and a retention portion electrically connecting with the daughter PCB. Therefore, a continuous ground connection is thus established between the USB connector and the daughter PCB.